The 10 Best GIFs From Last Night’s NBC Comedies

Community, bad; The Office, very good. This truly is the darkest of…YEAH WE GET IT ALREADY.

Community: At least Jeff and Annie looked good…I both do and don’t want “Advanced Introduction to Finality” to be the final episode of Community. Do: the show is clearly out of ideas. Or, perhaps more accurately, the ideas that it does have left are such fan service that they’re offensive. One of season four’s biggest problems was its lack of saying anything new about the characters; the same jokes were used over and over again, as were the plots, with “Finality” wanting to please us so badly that I even felt embarrassed for Chevy Chase when he appeared wrapped in an outfit seemingly made of snakeskin and gym mats. It beat us over the head with references to paintball, darkest timelines, and Inspector Spacetimes; we like those things, but we also want more than that. And the “more” in “Finality” made no sense: Jeff dreaming of Evil Abed? The lack of City College after last week’s cliffhanger? THE MATRIX PARODIES? For a brief moment, it even made me retroactively hate “Remedial Chaos Theory,” my favorite episode of the entire show. Which brings me to the don’t: I’m sad that this could be our final memory of one of the most inventive, occasionally brilliant sitcoms ever. Moses Port and David Guarascio never made Community their own, and somewhere out there (beneath the pale moonlight), Dan Harmon feels just as conflicted as we do.

The Office: The Office, as we know it, is done. “A.A.R.M.” gave happy endings to those who deserve it the most (and an unhappy one to Andy, which good; it’s a shame that Jessica St. Clair had to womp it up with this pit of a character), and all that’s left is for the Dunder-Mifflin crew to react to footage we’ve already seen or update us on their lives six months down the line. And if next week’s greatest hits package is only half as moving as Jim and Pam’s highlight reel and long-forgotten teapot note (yeah, I got misty, so what?), well, to quote the unseen Michael Scott, “This is going to hurt like a motherf*cker.”

Goodbye, Community, possibly for forever.

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Ok, so despite the fact that there were some pretty good jokes last night, I had troubles with the Let’s-Take-Our-Two-Most-Popular-Premises-And-Cram-Them-Together-Somehowness of the episode. Could have done with out more dice and more (ugh) paintball.

Just watch it dude. People are way too sensitive about this freaking show. When Harmon did paintball twice, or other call backs, it was “brilliant”. When the new guys did it last night, suddenly it was “derivative and cheap”. Well, I call “horsecrap” on that assessment.

While old ideas were revisited, they were approached in a novel way that made them fresh but familiar. If that was the series finale, it was a better series finale than Harmon made for the end of season 3. As a stand alone episode, it might even be one of my favorites of the entire series.

I agree with everything there slice except “it was a better series finale than Harmon made for the end of season 3”. I actually loved the montage to the extended theme at the end of season 3’s finale. It was funny, poignant, and emotional which are what this show did better than almost any other at its peak. Last night’s was very good, but it didn’t have the emotional resonance that I felt at the end of season 3.

But there are way to many people complaining that the show “lost it”. There were two episodes that weren’t very good this year (Hunger Deans and the convention) but beyond that, it was solid. It was always going to be difficult to come anywhere near the brilliance of season 2 anyway.

I thought the episode was ok, but there is definitely a difference between doing a callback/self-referential joke and just pointing at something and screaming “remember this? You like this!” The latter is what Community does now.

That is crap I wanted the show to still be good but they have ruined Annie as a character for me. Abed stinks Troy and Britta are good but not as a couple. Jeff is Jeff but the thing with his dad was tripe. Peirce has one foot out the door. It just isn’t the same

I was bugged the most by the lack of City College. Last week seemed to be setting up some big confrontation where Chang reveals to everyone that he’s been faking and is working with City College. But instead there wasn’t even a mention of them.

Yep, best moment of the episode that didn’t involve Evil Annie in a tight red dress.

I actually kind of liked the episode though, but I can’t really quibble with any of Josh’s points. The ending works as both a series finale (though not nearly as well as last season’s) and a segue into a fifth season, but I hope we get a 5th season.

I did not hate community as a season 4 episode goes because “the ideas that it does have left are such fan service that they’re offensive” is how I’ve felt most of the season even if there have been some great moments. I liked how they rounded out the story well enough and it was very gifable – all of these made me smile. Really my biggest joy though was knowing if this is the end, it ended with a Troy and Abed moment.

Thinking back on season 4, I think I’m going to be most pissed about how much time was spent on Changnesia etc. to be resolved as hastily as it was last week. And yeah, what about City college? i guess we’re just to assume that war will wage on long after the greendale 7 are gone.

The Office worked for me on most levels. I loved seeing Andy’s audition (and didn’t hate any of the guests like I thought I might). Him crying on the floor was perfect. His return to Poor Richard’s was fitting. I was so happy that the little montage Jim used (and all of us just knew that was coming) was short and served a purpose within the plot as well as tie it back to season 2. I’ll take it. I thought all around it was a fitting end to the narrative of the “doc”. Next week really might hurt like a motherf*cker.

The finale was disappointing but I’m hopeful that with another season there will be less “please like us! See! We’ll do what you like!” cool dad pandering. I also hope the departure of Chevy Chase (I can’t tell if it was a coincidence that the strongest string of episodes came after his departure) will lead to more quality.

I agree with the idea that the pandering led to crappier episodes BUT I think the fanbase really did paint these guys into a corner- DON’T CHANGE OUR SHOW!!! was quickly followed by WHAT AREN’T YOU TRYING NEW THINGS?!?

I sincerely hope they get a chance to make their show next year with this cast and characters that we love. I am curious to see where the show goes when it’s not trying to stay on the treadmill.

Not only did it make me feel bad for Chevy Chase, it made me agree completely with Josh. Darkest timeline, indeed.

Last night’s Community felt like the finale of a fireworks show, like they looked down at the pile of unused plots and references and decided to just set every last thing they had on fire and see what happened. The result was fun to look at but ultimately incomprehensible.

If I go to a fireworks show, and whoever is firing off the fireworks has unused ones lying at his feet, that motherfucker better keep firing until they are gone. Especially for a final hurrah. Can’t hold anything back now.

Screw it: I didn’t fully enjoy Community, but I laughed quite a bit.Yeah, total fan service and all, but I feel like the writers have been exactly where a lot of fans have been: confused and afraid, because they don’t know where the show may or may not be going. There have been no guarantees of anything, and, as a result, they just tried to create a “hey, remember why you loved this show before?” kind of episode that fell flat. I still laughed, though, and was happy to have watched it.

As for The Office…I’m still torn. The episode wasn’t awful or anything, but the whole Jim and Pam thing just seems so weird to me. One minute it feels real and dramatic, the next it feels hammed and overly sweet. The drama leading up to now has brought out the best in the actors, but it just seems to be ending on such a note that hurts my sweet tooth. Anyways, that’s just my bitching.

The finale was particularly disappointing after it seemed that they were getting closer to finding their own way to handle Community. But, after this, the last few just sort of felt as if they were circling the drain.

Even the “Oh, they like Alison Brie GIFs” moments felt hollow and tacked on.

Also, Britta, who almost single-handedly carried the season, had nothing to do here.

You know the episode of South Park where Kenny is in a coma and they can’t find the last page of his will to determine whether to pull the plug or not and it turns into a huge media frenzy a la Terry Schaivo? Then, at the end, the lawyer shows up and the last page says something to the effect of “Please, for the love of God, don’t put me on TV.”

I think that’s a pretty good analogy for Community at this point. The show is Kenny, and the internet, NBC, Sony and fanboys are all the parties that are making sure that it loses as much dignity as possible before it’s inevitably cancelled.

Oh, and here’s my beef with the episode: it doesn’t feel like a finale! The end of last season put a coda on the season (and potentially the series depending on how you look at it). But we got no payoff to Jeff and Britta getting closer or Jeff and Annie, we got no City College involvement. It felt like the penultimate episode, not a finale.

I think the reason that Community had so much fan service is because Megan Ganz wrote the episode knowing it could be the very last one. It was a “In case this is the last time we get to do this, thank you.”

Honestly at this point half of the fanbase can’t be satisfied no matter what the writers do.

Yep. As soon as Dan Harmon left, 50% of the fanbase was never ever ever going to be satisfied. I didn’t mind the episode. It was an average Community episode, which is to say, it was still better than most television on today.

Writer Megan Ganz even admitted weeks ago that she tried to do way way too much in the finale was deliberately trying to cramp as much nostalgia into the episode as possible and it kind of came out as a mess. Between this one & the Halloween ep she wrote makes me think she was more reliant on Harmon than many of the other writers as her name has been on some good shows in the past.

I did not know the Halloween episode was hers. This makes total sense, even though I liked last night okay. The Halloween ep was the perfect example of the show’s style being completely off. “I hate reference humor”. “I remember when this show was about a community college.” indeed.

I think the problem with Ganz is that she is a superfan. She came to the show as a writer in season 2 with no formal writing exp, she just really loved season 1. Many have complained that this year feels like fan-fiction and I theorize that this can largely be traced back to Ganz. She was elevated to producer this season and is I think the senior staff writer. I’d imagine Harmon was able to keep her from being too self-indulgent in the past but the new guys may not have felt comfortable keeping her in check do to her seniority and pop with the fans.

This really makes a ton of sense. The hole analogy that this season has felt like “fan-fiction” is dead on accurate. Now knowing Ganz’s background, it seems like a good answer for why this season just didn’t work.

I was glad for 2 things that happened in Community Season 4: Jeff and his Dad and Jeff’s realizations therefrom, and Pierce and Jeff bonding at the barbershop and thus Jeff looking at Pierce as more than a racist old man. In those 2 things, these showrunners gave us new stuff Harmon did not.

Joel McHale needs to be in a superhero movie already. I need a fainting couch to watch the underwear scene again.

Pierce and Jeff’s bonding episode was one of the few bright spots that really stuck out in my mind from this season. That felt more like the Community I knew. Honestly, that episode would have been a far better sendoff for Pierce than what they did. Having the last scene of Pierce be him and Jeff in the barber shop as friends would have been far better than the whole throwaway “I’m going to graduate too!” crap from this finale.

While completely unworthy as a series or even season finale I don’t think I hated this episode nearly as much as most of the internet (though not like that says much do to the internet’s crack-like addiction to hyperbole). Sure nothing made sense but at this point I’m like “fuck it I will enjoy what I can.”

exactly they need a sense of familiarity for there Thursday night line up after the office is gone. It’s one of those things would it be easier to have another season of community than risk green-lighting another 1600 Penn and put more money marketing it only for it to fail miserably? I mean to kick off 1600 Penn they got one of the Bush twins to interview the guy who created it as way of drumming up attention.

Community: Meh. Not a fan of the darkest timeline stuff but it wasn’t super awful. In no way is that a finale of any kind. Didn’t even feel like a season finale.
The Office: Dwight’s proposal with the megaphone was awesome. Kevin being jealous of Phillip was a great way to let Kevin shine before the series ended. Darryl’s dance party was great.
I want a bean bag to throw at people that says “NOW”….

I was so glad to see “Marissa Whompler” (St Claire) on the Office. I don’t think the character was given a name. Community season 4 had a few gems in an overall mediocre season. While last season’s finale felt like more a series finale then this.

I have never been so happy at the “it was all a dream” not because it tied the story together but because I watched the entire second act thinking holy shit this can not be how they decided to end this

Hopefully if Community does come back the writers will feel more confidant to make the show there own instead dwelling were the show has been. I think the new showrunners were scared to try anything remotely radical as they feared the fanbase would be up in arms that they were tearing the house that Dan Harmon build down. Instead they now have the fanbase screaming that they are wallowing in well-trodden mud. Still I thought that many episodes were solid, especially in the 2nd half. Hopefully they get a chance to build on that in the future.

Yeah, that was so bizarre. They were setting up this huge showdown between Greendale and City College and then it’s just totally forgotten about. Maybe they were trying to do a homage to LOST with that or something.

My theory: Chang foiled the plot by become apart for the Greendale 6, resulting in the City College Dean to go back to the drawing board. This would have taken more than one episode for him to regroup.

No one’s talking about The Office? As much as the past two seasons have frustrated me, I was able to suspend enough disbelief last night to enjoy what essentially felt like the series finale. I really like that the final episode is going to be a fast-forward “where are they now.” With the Dwight-Angela wedding this also creates less chance that the guest appearances will feel completely forced.

The whole series long Jim-Pam marriage conflict seemed too-neatly tied up in a nostalgic ribbon, but, hey, nostalgia is what the show has been sorely lacking as of late so I’ll take it.

Also, fucked up a bit that Angela wouldn’t tell Dwight about his baby until he proposed to her? Like, out of the complete blue? Anyway, happy ending and such. That’ll do, The Office. That’ll do.

I thought it was a fitting “finale” for sure. You hit on one of my biggest issues though – I’m 99% sure that Dwight did his own test with a Dr. to prove he was the father and found out he wasn’t that way. It was how he ended season 8 and it was stated in the cold open of new guys (if i could only find it streaming to verify). So yeah, that Angela reveal felt shoehorned in.

I thought it was a great way to wrap up the season/series long arc of Jim and Pam. They had been working toward a resolution for weeks and this didn’t feel forced to me at all. I’m really glad too they didn’t go crazy with the nostalgia – that’s what next week is for. The show really could have ended right there last night though and I probably would have been happy. I also think I would be clamoring for a reunion show like what they’re doing next week. I really feel like it’s going out strong on a lot of really great notes.

Dwight was trying to conduct his own paternity test and finally Angela confronted him and said that the baby wasn’t his. She was with the senator (who she still thought was straight) at that point so she still had something to lose.

One thing, though: I would have been PERFECTLY happy with Andy just walking into the bar at the end and eliminating that whole depressing and uncomfortable sub-plot. No thanks!

The Dr. says “Mr. Schrute the results are in. You’re not the father.”
Angela: “Told you.”

So maybe she got him to lie somehow? I dunno. You’re absolutely right she was with the senator and I get her motives for lying, but the Dr. definitely said it and then she piled on. I guess we’re to assume the Dr. was wrong.

Didn’t the showrunners say that Community would end with a bunch of “cliffhangers that would leave the fate of several characters in limbo?” While I did like the final study room scene I don’t feel like any of their futures are uncertain aside from Pierce. I don’t know something about that just irked me

Actually, it’s still pretty open for everyone. The rest of the study group is still at Greendale for a semester or two, Jeff will pop in here and there, Chang is doing whatever he and the rival dean were doing, etc. In fact, the only person with a certain future is Pierce/Chevy since he’s graduating and leaving the show.

I don’t know where you got that quote from, but I had heard that they made sure they finished it in such a way that it could serve as a season finale OR a series finale.

the “that leaves the fate of several characters up in the air — one of them being Pierce.” line made me think something bigger would happen, I guess, than just Jeff and Pierce graduate and everyone else is still in school. but I know the whole shortened season/hiatus screwed up so many things

I like the “series” finale of Community. I felt the whole, “this is in your head Jeff” part really sucked but overall I’m pretty satisfied with how the show ended. I’m not really sure where they go from here consider two of the seven are gone technically so let’s just leave it here and move on.

The Office, it’s a real shame that when the end is near is when a show gets good. Well acted, lots of laugh and Creed once again steals the show. Daryl’s send off was amazing and the reconciliation of Jim and Pam, while rushed, was satisfying enough for me. Next week is going to hit me right in the feels…

In talking about the Jeff playing out the worst timeline in his head part – everyone remembers the season premiere of season 3 right? They did a pretty good job of establishing that Jeff has some pretty outlandish fantasies at that table.

Community was shit a waste of everyones time, if they at least cared enough to show some cleavage I could forgive its shittyness like I forgive The Client List. But there was just nothing redeemable in this episode. I hope they do cancel it, all the actors deserve something better, and so does the audience.

Since I was lukewarm on the bulk of Season 1 of Community but loved Seasons 2 and 3, there is part of me that kind of would like to see if the post-Harmon Community can shake off the rust like Harmon managed to do late in Season 1. But if they can’t, it would be like the Jeff Melvoin season of Northern Exposure, but worse.

I felt pretty okay about the Community season finale. Not great, but not angry at it by any means. I guess I’m kind of in the minority in that I was perfectly pleased with the conceit of the episode; the execution left me feeling a little cold at times but the overall product was something I felt good about having watched. It’s nice when they don’t make Troy a blubbering simpleton, which they seem to have backed off of in the past few episodes (to great effect). The Dean sobbing off his mascara in a wedding dress delighted me to no end. Cheap, easy gag but fucking effective.

I”m in the minority but I didn’t think it was terrible. It may not have been the best episode ever but it was decent. I did like when Abed told Jeff not to use logic after his speech. And Pierce’s comment about the weather changing so drastically. With everyone’s complaints about it, it was still better than a lot of what’s out there currently.

I was honestly shocked to see such a negative reaction from the internet. I thought it was a great episode. This is quite possibly the last episode we’ll get of Community and people are getting butt-hurt that they used their final opportunity to revisit some of the most loved themes from the show’s existence. The Darkest Timeline and Paintball are the two most memorable things about a show that had a lot of memorable moments over 4 seasons. How are people so pissed that we got a chance to see them again one last time?

Have Community S04 sitting on my DVR, but finding it hard to work up the will to watch it. S01-S03 were must watch for me but after I watched the first two eps of season 4 it just stopped seeming as urgent.

To be fair, so I don’t get labeled a “Community Dan Harmon Hipster”, there are some decent episodes later it. This season starts off REALLY rough, it does find it’s groove around the middle of the season (yet still pales in comparison to S1-3, oops, went ‘hipster’ there for a sec), but then the finale just totally poops the bed.

I kinda liked the Community finale, I see people’s points regarding the plot line being kind of all over the place, but at least I laughed which I can’t say for all of the episodes this season. Maybe I’m just a sucker for evil Annie and The Cape references though, I don’t know.

Community was pretty bad this week except for sexy evil Annie. Drunken Shirley was also gold.
The Office had one of it’s best episodes of the season, and it could have been even better had they cut out all the Andy stuff and Daryl stuff. That scene when they all wanted to dance with him was just cringe worthy.

Yeah, I didn’t really get the dance gag. I guess it was a feels moment, but the execution was awful. Andy’s last scene on the show should have been his swan song last week. I hated him all over again last night.

As an aside, as I’ve watched Season 4, Community seemed to be putting an awful lot of effort into what they wrote on the study room chalk board/dry-erase board. It was rare that I could make it out clearly though. Anybody know of somewhere on the interwebs that archived screengrabs or maybe “translated” what was written?